Lost in the Halls
by Clover123
Summary: Lee brings his five year old to work one day... And ends up losing her in the process. Lee/Lilly and mentioned Christa/Omid and comic Maggie/Glenn Oneshot! No apocalypse.


**N: Hello! Okay… I feel like a terrible person right now because I haven't updated****_ Harry Raised Weasley _****or ****_What a Difference_****. I SWEAR to God that I won't give up on either of those. I'm having writer's block for HRW and WaD still needs about 500 more words, and then Chapter 4 is finished! I swear they'll be out soon.**

**Just some things I need to let you guys know about**

**1. This story is Lee/Lilly**

**2. Lee works at Macon State College in this story, as UGA is too far from Macon and Warner Robbins Air Force Base**

**3. There is no apocalypse in this story**

**4. I have a comic pairing mentioned, and that is Maggie/Glenn, and Sophia (Carol's daughter) is their daughter, as they adopted Sophia in the comics**

**5. Clementine IS mentioned, but she's Christa and Omid's daughter**

**6. I did LOTS of research for distances in this story**

**Okay, so please read, review, favorite, and all that stuff. Thanks!**

** - Clover**

* * *

"Alright, if you're going to stay here with me," Lee began to his five year old daughter, who was sitting at a table in his office. "I need you to sit here and be quiet. Quiet as a mouse, okay? I need to work on a few things…" Cate nodded, her small brown ponytails bobbing up and down.

"You can color in your book and here's some crackers if you get hungry."

Lilly had always had a later work schedule, and usually it was Lee who looked after Cate and cooked before she got home, but now, he'd been asked to attend a video conference with several college officials to work on the curriculum, at the same time Lilly was working.

Since Lilly wasn't allowed to bring children to her job (she did "mechanical admin stuff", as she had put it, in the military), Lee had been going to leave her with Omid and Christa, their neighbors, so she could play with Clementine, since Clem was having a sleepover already with Glenn and Maggie's daughter, Sophia, and they could all have a bit of fun, but Cate begged not to stay with them ("Miss Christa makes me eat spinach and won't let me eat ice cream for dessert!" Cate said to her father, giving him the kicked puppy eyes.), so Lee had decided to bring her with him.

She sat down at a table he'd set up for her and grabbed a fat, green crayon to scribble with, while Lee logged onto his computer and began the conference with the officials.

Every few minutes, Cate would interrupt to show Lee her drawings, which was greatly annoying him.

"Cate, just save the drawings until I'm done, okay?" Cate pouted, but agreed, and put her drawings into an untidy pile on the other side of the table. Finally, she got bored of coloring and began to hum rather loud.

"Catherine, please stop." Lee grumbled, even more annoyed than before. The officials paused, thinking that Lee was interrupting them.

"I'm sorry, about that, Mr. Romero. My wife had to work, and my daughter Catherine refused to stay with a sitter, so I had to bring her here." The man nodded.

"I know how kids are, Mr. Everett. I have triplet granddaughters, and they never cease to stop their immaturity." The man grumbled and shook his head, before continuing about cutting certain things out of the budget, like band. Lee didn't grumble, but he very dearly wanted to. Mr. Romero just continued… on and on and on…

After about thirty minutes, Cate left to use the bathroom that was right down the hall. Lee looked at the clock after a few minutes, and realized that she'd been gone for ten minutes.

"And then we should –"

"I'm so sorry to interrupt, Mr. Hanks, but I think we may need to continue this at a different time. It's my daughter… she's been gone for ten minutes… she's five, and I'm afraid of what she's getting up to." Both men sighed in frustration and agreed to continue at a later time. Lee signed off and stood up, before grabbing his office keys and exiting his office, thinking that Cate may just be playing in the classroom.

The classroom was empty though, and so was the hallway. The women's restroom was empty, too. Lee decided he was never going into a women's restroom ever again. Some things could not be unseen.

"Cate! Cate! This isn't funny!" he called down the hallway. "Catherine Jane Everett! Come out here right now! I'm not playing games with you, young lady!" There was no answer.

Shit, Lee thought. How could he explain to Lilly that he lost their daughter?

He checked several rooms, looking for her and calling her name, and was starting to lose hope.

He knew Cate would come if Lilly was looking for her. Lilly was like her father, Larry. She had a knack for getting kids to do what she told them to do.

"You _lost _Cate?!" Lilly demanded, dumbfounded on why Lee let their daughter run off, alone, and at a college, too!

"Fine, fine. I'll see if the boss will let me leave. You keep looking for Cate, because if we don't find her, she won't be the only one in trouble."

Lilly had been able to leave Warner Robbins, but only on the condition that she would give up her day off (which she didn't think was fair, but she wasn't about to get fired over that shit).

It took her about thirty minutes to get to Macon State College, and when she did, Lee still hadn't found Cate.

"Is this place really that large?" Lilly asked her husband. They had been looking for over an hour by then, and it felt like they had searched almost the entire campus.

"I've no idea, Lil, I just… God, do you think we should call someone? Like the police, or make an announcement over the speaker?"

Lilly looked close to tears, which didn't happen often.

"I don't know! I just want our daughter back! For all we know someone could've taken her or – Not know, Cate, mommy's talking." Lee and Lilly whirled around a second later to see Cate standing behind Lilly, tugging on her pants leg, eating a chocolate chip cookie.

"Hi mommy! You look nice today."


End file.
